A sloppy game in Norman ended with a 16-7 Oklahoma Sooners victory over the visiting West Virginia Mountaineers. West Virginia pulled out to an early lead on a 75-yard scamper by Dreamius Smith, but Oklahoma's defense tightened up and ended the Mountaineer scoring there.
West Virginia vs. Oklahoma final score: Sooners Pull Out 16-7 Victory
Oklahoma’s passing issues and a scary injury for a Mountaineers linebacker mark a sloppy game.
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Meanwhile, Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight was yanked late after a disappointing 10-for-20, 119-yard performance; after all, throwing for 119 yards against the Mountaineers' secondary is like throwing for 53 yards and eight picks against a normal defense.
The game took a dour tone late when senior WVU linebacker Doug Rigg was knocked out and suffered an apparent head or neck injury. Rigg had to be immobilized and carted off with under six minutes to go. Rigg waved to the crowd and was speaking as he was being carted off, so this story should have a happy ending in short order, but a pall was cast over the stadium all the same.
The game as a whole was little more than a mess; neither offense moved the ball with much efficiency, and each team committed four turnovers on the day. West Virginia was particularly brutal on special teams, fumbling a punt return and extending an OU drive on a roughing the punter call. By comparison, Oklahoma’s late chip-shot field goal try that doinked off the upright seems downright tame.
Box Score Hero(es): Brennan Clay and Damien Williams tore up the Mountaineer defense on the ground in tandem on Saturday, with Clay racking up 170 yards on 22 rushes (including a ridiculous 33-yard first down on 3rd and 19 from OU's own 1-yard line) and Williams adding 95 yards on 21 more rushes. WVU simply had no answer for Oklahoma's rushing attack — and that's good, because Oklahoma struggled mightily passing the ball.
Rankings Ramifications: Oklahoma’s No. 16 ranking will probably hold firm, as there’s not a whole lot of reason to bump up a ranked team that beat a weaker conference foe by only nine at home.
But Did They Cover? Oklahoma was favored by 21 to 22 points, so no, not a stellar day in Vegas for the Sooners.
For More On This Game: For more on OU football, visit Oklahoma community Crimson And Cream Machine. For more on WVU football, visit West Virginia community The Smoking Musket.
Next Week’s Schedule: West Virginia hosts nascent FBS program Georgia State and Oklahoma will face Tulsa next week.
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